Help Converting .bak to .mdb

[thezero]

Hello everyone,

I'm very new to ASP, so please forgive my ignorance with terminology etc. I have a colleague who needs to migrate an ASP website from the current hosts to our own hosting. We have a .bak file and FTP access. We've moved all the files over, but we're having trouble getting the database into a format that our hosting will support. I installed MS SQL Server Management Studio 2008 Express and I managed to import the .bak file into a local database. My colleague has also ended up with a .mdf file from somewhere, but I don't currently know how he did this. We can't use the .mdf file as our current hosting (Heart internet) doesn't support this, and requires either a .sql or a .mdb file.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to resolve this database issue? I don't even know if I'm using the right software, so any advice you can give me will be really appreciated.

Thank you.

[gk53]

For moving database from one server to another you can make existing database backup (usually it is .bak file), copy that file to new SQL server computer and restore database from backup on new server. MDF file is actual database file it is lucked to any access as long as server runs you can detach database from server in this case your MDF file will be removed from SQL server and you can transfer file from old server to new and attach database file do server on new server. I could be done in Microsoft management studio or from command line depend from what level of access you have

[thezero]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply. I have managed to restore the .bak file by importing it into an empty SQL database in MS SQL Server Management Express. However, I don't understand how I can get this data into a form that can be uploaded and imported into the MySQL database running on the shared hosting Windows server. Can you give me any advice on this?

[gk53]

you should be able to restore database from backup on your shared server all hosting companies providing tools for restore database from backup...

[thezero]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I just asked our hosting about this, and they sent back the following reply:

"Thank You for contacting us.

A .bak file is a backup of a MSSQL database so before this can be restored you will need to order a MSSQL database for this package via the Reseller Control Centre > Manage MS SQL Databases. These cost £10+VAT per month.

With regards to importing .bak files we can do this for you as there are no tools in the control panel for this."

Does that sound plausible to you? Is there any way around this £10 per month charge?

[gk53]

So, you do not have SQL database in your plan? You must have it is number of hosting providers which have SQL database included in hosting plan

[thezero]

Well I'm on a reseller shared hosting plan, so I get an unlimited number of shared server setups for a monthly fee but I guess they don't come with an MSSQL database. They have MySQL, but unfortunately I don't know if I can use that with this database.